By John Tozzi
On Friday, they became American citizens.”I'm a college graduate and she attends Queensborough,” said Radica, who is now 28 and works for the Long Island Rail Road.The sisters were among 244 of the new Americans sworn in at Queensborough Community College in Bayside. Their parents brought them to America so they would have better educations, they said, because many women in Trinidad start families before they get a chance to go to college.”They get married,” Radica said. “They're housewives. Here we were given the opportunity.”Vidya, now a 19-year-old Queensborough student, was the kind of new American the college's president was thinking of when he called the community college system an “academic Ellis Island.””It is in places like this that immigrants come in and begin to understand the tools that are necessary to live in American society,” Dr. Eduardo Mart’ told the new citizens and their families.Mart’, himself an immigrant from Cuba, received a new copy of his citizenship certificate at Friday's ceremony – he had lost his original years ago.”For those of you who got it today, don't lose it because it's a very long process to get another one,” he said.City Councilman David Weprin (D-Hollis), whose mother was from Cuba, also congratulated the group.”You are now part of the American family,” he said. “As one of your brothers, let me say, welcome home.”Both Weprin and Mart’ said the youngest generation of new Americans will determine the future of the nation.”You are the ones who are going to shape the society that my grandchildren are going to live in,” Mart’ said. “By becoming an American citizen, you become a partner in this enterprise.”For Joey Payumo, a 36-year-old Brooklyn resident who came from the Philippines on a student visa when he was 25, the choice to join that enterprise was clear.”You get a right to vote and a right to travel and get a federal job,” he said. “The opportunities are a lot, so the decision is easy to come over and stay.”Reach reporter John Tozzi by e-mail at news@timesledger.com or by phone at 718-229-0300 Ext. 174.
